Main highlights, 40 mile ride yesterday and an 8 mile rum on Saturday. Pushing the distance now and not feeling uncomfortable.

Those 2 sessions alone have given me a pile of confidence for the event.

Nutrition is still giving me headaches! Got a stitch on the bike yesterday that wouldn't go away. Looking back, I ate toast only an hour before heading out and started fuelling 20 minutes in to the ride. Too much too soon and need an earlier breakfast.

Main highlights, 40 mile ride yesterday and an 8 mile rum on Saturday. Pushing the distance now and not feeling uncomfortable.

Those 2 sessions alone have given me a pile of confidence for the event.

Nutrition is still giving me headaches! Got a stitch on the bike yesterday that wouldn't go away. Looking back, I ate toast only an hour before heading out and started fuelling 20 minutes in to the ride. Too much too soon and need an earlier breakfast.

It's a bike ride though? I will eat a pile of porridge, with banana, choc spread and mixed berries thrown in only 15-20 minutes before I head out the door. Riding shouldn't have the same effect as running because your gut isn't being shaken around. I would think there is another reason tbh.
_________________My blog: https://stenardstuff.wordpress.com/
Random stuff and race reports

Reasonably short week for me again, was suffering from the after effects of a cold and overdoing it at the 50M TT last weekend, then didn't eat enough on a long ride on Tuesday so was suffering again on Weds!

Managed 3 swims including getting in the lake!

22k running, which is about my limit ATM, 12k on Saturday with a parkrun around 90 min half pace. But was struggling.

Long lumpy bike on Tuesday, about 54 miles then the TT yesterday which was about 33 miles with the warmup, and a 3k brick.

On holiday this week so training won't be easy for a couple of days but going to Edinburgh on Thursday for the 70.3 this weekend, hoping to recce the bike course on Thurs and get some kind of swim on Friday, maybe at the 50M pool in the city.

First proper week of training in what seems like an eternity. A combination of taper for Mallorca, then a repetitive weekly cycle of recovery and shorter racing, which probably led to a few days of illness, meant things really took a downward turn for the past 5-6wks or so.

However last week was the beginning of the final proper build towards Copenhagen, and whilst I felt pretty tired during the middle of the week, I actually felt really rather strong over the weekend (143k bike on Saturday, 3.6k lake swim and 25k run on Sunday).

Total TSS per trainingpeaks was 1042. By far my biggest in over 2 months, and the only time I've been over 1000 outside of formal training camps.

Second big week in a row. 20/20 scheduled sessions completed per TP over the last fortnight. This coming week will be lighter due to an enforced weekend off (stag do), hence a slightly intentional overloading for the last couple of weeks. TSB currently at -55! But that should recover to more normal levels in the next week.

Another big weekend in particular, with a century ride on the TT on Saturday morning, 4.5k OW Sunday morning, and 30k run in the evening.

So only around 50 TSS/hour, that's pretty easy going, for what are not that long rides? (3h,3h,2h ?) That's barely a zone 2 HR average for most - or is it that you have a lot of time at low intensity and then some at much higher?
_________________Jibbering Sports Stuff

So only around 50 TSS/hour, that's pretty easy going, for what are not that long rides? (3h,3h,2h ?) That's barely a zone 2 HR average for most - or is it that you have a lot of time at low intensity and then some at much higher?

So yes, all relatively moderate, but that's because I'm now more in the race specific phase, as opposed to earlier in the year where I was doing more shorter intervals, absolute power sets, big gear work, etc.

EDIT - I think you also have to factor in the context and the ultimate goal. As the goal is IM, volume right now is the key purpose. All the FTP raising stuff was done earlier in the year. Now it's just trying to drag out my ability to hold a reasonable intensity.

And on top of that, it has to be considered in the context of the other training. Tuesday's sessions is broadly a semi-rest day, as is Monday (2.5k steady swim). Then from Wednesday onwards my week kicks off, and right now I really don't think I could cope with high intensity bike work added into the mix.

I'm already pretty fatigued, but coping. Add in intensity, and I think it'd be too much. I'm happy backing my coach on this, especially as it's my first full distance so this kind of volume is rather new to me.
_________________My blog: https://stenardstuff.wordpress.com/
Random stuff and race reports

22km, mostly coast path in the middle of the day. It's VERY rare i get 2 hours to myself on the weekend so couldn't resist! That tap at the caravan park was perfectly placed and every much needed.

Also did a little off road relay, 3.4km last week. 3rd fastest time out of everyone on the day and our team won, so that's quite cool.

Somehow managed to incite a club parkrun war on Saturday ... so i'm going to get absolutely rinsed at that , as i really do not have any speed endurance right now. Maybe in another month, as the target is to get back down under 17.

EDIT - I think you also have to factor in the context and the ultimate goal. As the goal is IM, volume right now is the key purpose. All the FTP raising stuff was done earlier in the year. Now it's just trying to drag out my ability to hold a reasonable intensity.

I wasn't trying to suggest it was necessarily wrong! I was just quite interested in what seems a relatively light bike training, that you're also doing it below intensity on average, whereas all your swimming and running is at your IM intensity.

Given that normally cycling load can normally be higher as it's so much less impactful than running, but of course it's also harder to fit in etc. So I was just intrigued about the difference.
_________________Jibbering Sports Stuff

EDIT - I think you also have to factor in the context and the ultimate goal. As the goal is IM, volume right now is the key purpose. All the FTP raising stuff was done earlier in the year. Now it's just trying to drag out my ability to hold a reasonable intensity.

I wasn't trying to suggest it was necessarily wrong! I was just quite interested in what seems a relatively light bike training, that you're also doing it below intensity on average, whereas all your swimming and running is at your IM intensity.

Given that normally cycling load can normally be higher as it's so much less impactful than running, but of course it's also harder to fit in etc. So I was just intrigued about the difference.

That's ok. I also wasn't being overly defensive, altho it maybe came across that way. Was just explaining what I understand the rationale to be.

You mention how it's relatively light, but right now all my running is generally at or below IM intensity as you suggest, which is pretty much true of the bike as well. It's only really the swim where I'm doing more threshold based stuff in the pool sets.

Out of interest, what would you consider a more stretch intensity to be for a century type ride? Clearly 1.0 IF can only be maintained for an hour by definition, so what's a typical power curve drop off as you get into multiple hours? I know a standalone ride is different to an IM intensity where you need to be in a position to run after as well, but I'm intrigued to hear from someone experienced.

Saturdays 5.5hr ride was at 0.72 IF across the whole ride, so not much below what I'd be aiming for on IM race day. I'm aiming to do a 100TT next month as a final simulation, and probably will aim to hold only just above IM target power, so maybe 0.75-0.8.
_________________My blog: https://stenardstuff.wordpress.com/
Random stuff and race reports

Main highlights, 40 mile ride yesterday and an 8 mile rum on Saturday. Pushing the distance now and not feeling uncomfortable.

Those 2 sessions alone have given me a pile of confidence for the event.

Nutrition is still giving me headaches! Got a stitch on the bike yesterday that wouldn't go away. Looking back, I ate toast only an hour before heading out and started fuelling 20 minutes in to the ride. Too much too soon and need an earlier breakfast.

It's a bike ride though? I will eat a pile of porridge, with banana, choc spread and mixed berries thrown in only 15-20 minutes before I head out the door. Riding shouldn't have the same effect as running because your gut isn't being shaken around. I would think there is another reason tbh.

First proper week of training in what seems like an eternity. A combination of taper for Mallorca, then a repetitive weekly cycle of recovery and shorter racing, which probably led to a few days of illness, meant things really took a downward turn for the past 5-6wks or so.

However last week was the beginning of the final proper build towards Copenhagen, and whilst I felt pretty tired during the middle of the week, I actually felt really rather strong over the weekend (143k bike on Saturday, 3.6k lake swim and 25k run on Sunday).

Total TSS per trainingpeaks was 1042. By far my biggest in over 2 months, and the only time I've been over 1000 outside of formal training camps.

Second big week in a row. 20/20 scheduled sessions completed per TP over the last fortnight. This coming week will be lighter due to an enforced weekend off (stag do), hence a slightly intentional overloading for the last couple of weeks. TSB currently at -55! But that should recover to more normal levels in the next week.

Another big weekend in particular, with a century ride on the TT on Saturday morning, 4.5k OW Sunday morning, and 30k run in the evening.

You mention how it's relatively light, but right now all my running is generally at or below IM intensity as you suggest, which is pretty much true of the bike as well.

You did around a 1/3rd of your TSS training on the bike, but in the event you'll be doing quite a bit more (getting on for half), and you only did a proportion of it at your intensity, I can't estimate the TSS split for the running/swimming, but it looks to me like it's more run as although you're a strong runner, you're still doing 60km, so rather than 45/45/10 as the energy demands of the day will be, you're biasing away from the bike (of course swimming is more technique than energy from the training anyway so it's probably actually worth just completely ignoring it here)

So I'm seeing IM swim doing more per week at race intensity, IM run doing more per week at IM intensity, but IM bike you only 3 hours of biking intensity, and at 19:30 park laps, that's only about half your bike?

I had imagined your split not including such a long bike though when you said the 8 hours, the 5.5 hours at 0.7 is likely a very good practice, but I do think the inconsistent pacing is a lot easier than steady pacing, ie I don't really trust the calculations.

In proper bike shape, 5 hours can certainly be done at over 0.8 IF in training, and certainly think you could race it harder, although that starts becoming more of an issue fueling as you will need extra calories but may be too hard to really eat them - heat and stuff also impact it, and you certainly don't want to knacker your subsequent training by going too hard of course.

Your 100mile TT plan sounds sensible, I do wonder if your shorter rides are a bit too easy, as they wouldn't hurt you much more to do it that little bit harder?
_________________Jibbering Sports Stuff